BROOKLYN BOHEME IS BACK! Neslson George's excellent documentary on the Black arts scene in '80s and '90s in Clinton Hill and Fort Greene. open.substack.com/pub/nelsonge...

With its reporting on ICE raids and foreign wars, Amjambo Africa aims to build a more inclusive community. Eloge Willy Kaneza speaks with Carolina Abbott Galvão. www.cjr.org/the-intervie...

cannot wait to talk about poetry + work this Saturday in the free nation of Philadelphia at Lot 49 books, with beautiful geniuses @keegancf.bsky.social and Gina Myers. Come along! Bring your friends enemies lovers comrades!

Robert Gober, Hope Hill Road, 1975 https://botfrens.com/collections/14377/contents/1137556

Books for Understanding ICE in Minnesota: a curated list of titles to aid in understanding the profound and disturbing events that have so deeply affected our communities. www.upress.umn.edu/books-for-un...

In this Off the Page episode, host Miranda Melcher and coauthors Martin Moore and Thomas Colley discuss DICTATING REALITY. buff.ly/nj8zviK @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social

Congratulations to Ainehi Edoro, author of the just-published FOREST IMAGINARIES: HOW AFRICAN NOVELS THINK, on being named a keynote thinker for the 2026 African Literature Association conference. bit.ly/4qQSN5y @brittlepaper.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social

Now available! CULTURAL MAVERICKS takes readers inside the world of independent bookselling in China. Drawing on more than a decade of immersive research, Zheng Liu unveils how these bookstores carve out a unique identity and market position. buff.ly/G6Pr91c #IndieBookStores #China #Bookstores

For this week’s Silent Sundays I spoke with professor and programmer @hennefem.bsky.social about her work in silent film, and why the era still speaks to us today.

"When I go to the movies, I expect to tango with ghosts. Undead, reborn, vengeful, soulful, flickering, uncanny – beautiful ghosts..." Maggie Hennefeld introduces her favourite cinematic experiences of 2025, now in Part 4 of our World Poll. buff.ly/zEucoDQ

"Reading Mendelson’s THE INNER LIFE OF MRS. DALLOWAY transformed a story I thought I knew." The *Columbia Daily Spectator* talks to Edward Mendelson abour his new book on Virginia Woolf and his approach to literature and teaching. bit.ly/49VkjJl @columbiaup.bsky.social

very grateful to The Quietus for publishing this essay- on everyday fascism and the promise and problem of “beauty” as an inadequate but therapeutic response to the ugliness of the present - plus there are some thoughts on disco and Patricia Highsmith- this felt like a risk but I’m glad it’s out

The arrests of Lemon and Fort are intended to deter journalists from doing work we need them to do, and that the First Amendment was meant to protect. DOJ should drop these prosecutions or the courts should throw them out. knightcolumbia.org/content/knig...

MJHA is delighted to announce that the 2026 Modern Japan History Association Book Prize has been awarded to Simon Partner (Duke University) for "Koume's World: The Life and Work of a Samurai Woman Before and After the Meiji Restoration" (Columbia University Press, 2024)!

"[A] profound, deeply moving study ... full of stimulating perceptions." The Virginia Woolf Bulletin reviews THE INNER LIFE OF MRS. DALLOWAY, by Edward Mendelson. Use the coupon code MLA and save 30% on the book! bit.ly/43tcDu2 @columbiaup.bsky.social

Courageous reporting from Minnesota and Iran. Plus: tone-deafness at the Tribune; spit hoods in Seattle. This week’s Laurels and Darts by @banikarim.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

It’s been a busy day for AB&IA. Not only did I release a new episode, but I also recorded an interview. The new interview: Katherine Fusco, author of Hollywood’s Others: Love & Limitation In The Star System. Watch this space for info. @columbiaup.bsky.social @fuscowrites.bsky.social

From Minneapolis to Gaza, how does the press responsibly report killings when officials act in obvious bad faith? By looking out the window. Read Jem Bartholomew. www.cjr.org/the_media_to...

Thanks @dwhdaily.bsky.social for the SHOUT-OUT to B. Geetha's fab review of 'Death by Laughter' in the January books round-up for @criterion.bsky.social ‼️‼️ (lots of irresistible reading recs here... 📚🎞️) www.criterion.com/current/post...

Minneapolis residents aren’t just pushing back against Trump’s crackdown—they’re undercutting MAGA’s core philosophy, Adam Serwer argues.

Martin Moore and ThomasColley discuss their extraordinary new book, DICTATING REALITY: THE GLOBAL BATTLE TO CONTROL THE NEWS with @jonlemire.bsky.social youtu.be/fOa7Y1e7NQo?... @martinjemoore.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social

“All the bookstores here are fighting this,” she said, “I can’t overstate how involved all the stores are and how much work everybody is doing. It is a really incredible moment to be here. And to be part of this.”—Angela Schwesnedl, Moon Palace Books in @literaryhub.bsky.social

In the second dispatch in our Letters from Minneapolis series, chaun webster considers the strange familiarity of ICE and the limits of our language to grapple with it.

On Friday, January 30th at 1 pm, join Jennifer Scappettone as she discusses her new book, POETRY AFTER BARBARISM at Basket Books and Arts in Houston, TX. tinyurl.com/2dbu8y7n @xenoglossic.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social

Philly folks! Next Saturday February 7 at 6pm: an event on poetry and labor at Lot 49 Books in Fishtown, feat. @keegancf.bsky.social, Gina Myers, and me. Please spread far and wide! Come along!!

Watch an interview with Jin Y. Park, author of MARGINALITY, on The Chasing Leviathan Podcast. buff.ly/7GpP4aa #socialjustice #socialchange

Read an interview with Iain Morland, author of INTERSEX, on the Everything is Horrible substack. buff.ly/BSfpM6o @nberlat.bsky.social

I'm deeply grateful for this extremely thoughtful, generous review of 'Death by Laughter' by B. Geetha in the new issue of @sensesofcinema.bsky.social!! Sending all my comrades here a much-needed jolt of jouissance and fuel to keep fighting (& laughing!!) ❤️🔥🐍🎞️ www.sensesofcinema.com/2026/book-re...

An excellent interview w/ Jarvis McInnis about his book AFTERLIVES OF THE PLANTATION, the role of the Black South in global modernity, the legacy of Booker T. Washington, HBCUs, and much more. tinyurl.com/mwawd9b7 @columbiaup.bsky.social

"Hennefeld ... proposes that scholarship can be practiced through joy, pleasure, and unruly enjoyment." An excellent review of Maggie Hennefeld's DEATH BY LAUGHTER: FEMALE HYSTERIA & EARLY CINEMA in @sensesofcinema.bsky.social: tinyurl.com/yc88xb7u @hennefem.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social

On #VirginiaWoolf's birthday, check out THE INNER LIFE OF MRS. DALLOWAY, Edward Mendelson's exploration of Woolf's novel as an extended protest against authorities that wield power over others. Use the code MLA and save 30%: bit.ly/43tcDu2 @columbiaup.bsky.social

Wrote to @josephoneill.bsky.social to talk about authoritarianism, the horrors in Minneapolis, and what to do about useless Democrats

I watched a bunch of AI sessions at the WEF so you wouldn’t have to. But you should read this.

Newly unsealed evidence makes it even clearer that Rubio and Noem knew they were targeting students based solely on their political speech and that they knew this policy was unconstitutional. They just didn’t care. www.nytimes.com/2026/01/22/u...

Awful.

ICE Directive Discovery. Plus: silent Bezos, post-fire future, and an investigation in Texas. Read this week's Laurels and Darts by @banikarim.bsky.social. www.cjr.org/laurels-and-...

The Paris Review mourns the loss of Georges Borchardt. Read our interview with him, published in 2018, here.

Philly people! Save the date! On Feb 7th @keegancf.bsky.social, poet Gina Myers, and I will be talking about poetry + work at Lot 49 books; 6-7:30; pub after; flier to come; come come come

In 1966 MLK went head to head with Chicago’s liberal mayor, speaking before thousands: “Let us be dissatisfied until every socially oppressive ghetto and rat-infested slum is plunged into the junk heaps of our nation and Negroes and whites live side by side in decent, safe, and sanitary housing.”

A Jewish American Substacker on balancing ethics with activism in a war zone, by Amos Barshad. www.cjr.org/the-intervie...

@jbhe.com has a great list of Recent Books of Interest to African American Scholars, including THE SOUTHS IN HER, by Nicole M. Morris Johnson tinyurl.com/ymzmsr2p @nimojo.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social

"When Charles Bukowski died in 1994 his guaranteed check from John Martin for $100 per month had risen to $10,000 per month." Joshua Bodwell traces the lineage of Black Sparrow Press and its founder, John Martin. https://lareviewofbooks.org/article/black-sparrow-press-bukowski-john-martin-history/

On Wednesday, 2/4, The Schomburg presents Films by William Greaves as part of their Black on Screen series. Throughout his influential career, the Harlem-born documentary filmmaker was instrumental in documenting Black life on screen. tinyurl.com/knjb952d

“Militant civil disobedience, aggressively confronting a phalanx of masked agents in riot gear, or blocking traffic is nonviolent, but these tactics are not considered by the political class to count as ‘peaceful protest.’” Historian Robin D. G. Kelley on how to think about ICE:

I apologize to hogs for the comparison defector.com/jd-vance-is-...

Congratulations to Ainehi Edoro on the official publication date of her new book: FOREST IMAGINARIES: HOW AFRICAN NOVELS THINK. Use the code MLA and save 30%! bit.ly/49whzSu @brittlepaper.bsky.social @columbiaup.bsky.social

Currently reading and excited for this, out tomorrow: Forest Imaginaries: How African Novels Think x Dr Ainehi Edoro, from Columbia University Press

In this Off The Page podcast episode, host Morteza Hajizadeh and author Ragini Tharoor Srinivasan talk about OVERDETERMINED. buff.ly/UkJVoQk #ListenUP @newbooksnetwork.bsky.social

“What would such an antigenealogical, transcendent philology that I’ve called for here look like? One example might be found in Jennifer Scappettone’s Poetry After Barbarism.” Read @aditilrao.bsky.social’s review, new at PB.

A twentieth-anniversary reissue of The Greatest renews faith in the artist’s soul-baring songs. 4columns.org/frere-jones-...